TRADITIONAL universities enjoy almost #3,000 more income per student than former polytechnics and higher education colleges.

The finding is revealed in new research carried out by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE).

It found the average traditional university gets #8,243 per student, with the average new university receiving just #5,320.

NATFHE calculates that in England, #728 of the funding gap is due to unequal distribution of government funding and the remaining #2,195 is due to endowments, donations and interests on assets.

NATFHE's head of universities Tom Wilson said: "We would not tolerate hospitals or schools receiving so much more funding than others, so why should we tolerate such unfairness being applied to our universities?"

Dr Mike Goldstein, vice-chancellor of Coventry University, believes there are valid reasons for former polytechnics and higher education colleges - which were given university status in 1992 - receiving less funding.

He said: "No account has been made of the different subject mix in institutions.

"Medical education is quite rightly funded at a higher rate and is exclusively located in pre-1992 institutions, so it is inevitable they will receive more funding."

But he added: "There are aspects of the data which demonstrate what intuitively is apparent, namely the modern universities are less well funded overall than those of longer standing.

"One specific aspect is the investment in research infrastructure.

"Pre-1992 universities had years of investment, which the modern universities have been denied.

"This means the latter are at a distinct disadvantage in securing recurrent funding for research, which is so vividly shown by these figures.

"While it is easy to dismiss the NATFHE report as flawed, I do hope the government and the funding council will give it due consideration."